Greg Shell '97
Political Science

My experience in the political science department at MIT allowed me to delve into several interesting policy questions, as well as to consider all of the tradeoffs, challenges, and ambiguity that they represent. The rigor with which we approached these topics as students is still inspirational to me; as we set a very high analytical bar before one could confidently declare something to be ‘true’. Then, as now, I was particularly interested in education reform and wrote my thesis on the (then) emerging topic of charter schools and the many factors that help promote improved levels of student achievement.

I went on to work in the field of finance - first attending the Harvard Business School, then holding number of positions in the investment arena - most currently as a portfolio manager at Boston’s elite money management firms, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo. My main work product is, of course, to profitably invest money on behalf of our institutional clients, seeking a strong-risk adjusted return. In doing, I get an opportunity to meet with many dozens of companies every year and get to really see American industry at work. I love being able to see how companies (even regions and countries) compete for capital, labor and ideas. This is particularly important and interesting as so many of the policy challenges that the country faces will exist at the nexus of business and government.